LET TERS
SHAMING IS UNHELPFUL
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
IN REAL ESTATE
“We would certainly recommend Tim to
anyone buying a home.”
“Thanks for your great attitude every
step of the way.”
Tim Verkler
Cell - 541-554-0910 • timverkler@gmail.com • www.eugeneproperties.net
Katherine, creator of the Friendly Anar-
chism podcast, advocates “shaming people
for their fascist beliefs” in the Oct. 19 EW
cover story, “Antifa.”
Publicly shaming those who engage in
hateful acts and live by hateful ideologies
does precisely nothing to convert ignorance
and hatred into understanding and trust.
Only real human connection does that.
If the annihilation of fascism and vio-
lence against oppressed populations is the
goal, the catharsis of the fight against fas-
cist individuals should be irrelevant. Shame
the fascist tool, not the person who wields
it. There is no “them,” no “other.” There is
only the spectrum of ways in which we hu-
mans wrestle with our fears and our egos,
some much more violently than others.
It takes more courage to listen to a fas-
cist than it does to fight one. Only then
will you have the opportunity to share the
evidence of their beliefs’ destructive con-
sequences, and only then will the people
you claim to protect be safe.
Lindsay Kunhardt
Eugene
FIGHTING STUDENT DEBT
WEDNESDAY
Join legendary musician
Country Joe McDonald
for “Reflections on the
Summer of Love and Woody
Guthrie,” an intimate Q&A
and performance.
KISSING TRUMP'S RUMP
$20 AT THE DOOR
MAJESTIC THEATRE 115 SW 2ND STREET
liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/americanstrings
Free to OSU students with ID in advance or
at the door while tickets are available. Pick up free ticket
in advance at Fairbanks 309A, or call 541-737-5592.
For accommodations relating to a disability or
to request this information in a different format,
please contact 541-737-2623.
Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts,
the School of Arts and Communication,
and the Grammy Museum.
4
As a student dealing with increasingly
high textbook prices, I wanted to show my
appreciation for Max Thornberry and his
article “Pay to Play” (Oct. 12) highlight-
ing the situation we are facing today. It is
an important and often neglected compo-
nent of the unreasonable debt that is being
placed upon students today.
I also wanted to express my delight
that you highlighted Open Educational
Resources at Lane Community College. I
firmly believe that open textbooks are an
integral part of the solution.
Access codes are a particularly nefarious
development. I have started working with
OSPIRG, a student political group with a
presence both at LCC and UO, as getting
textbooks cheaper and stopping the use of
access codes is one of their top issues.
I would like to encourage my fellow
students to get involved, even if that just
means letting your professors know that
you are bothered by high prices and access
code use.
Cole Sabin
Eugene
November 2, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
Apropos “Right Wing Horrors” (EW
Oct. 26), the two words that most aptly de-
scribe the time we live in are “frightening”
and “dispiriting."
And Halloween has nothing to do with it!
While he was still just a candidate run-
ning for President, Donald Trump once fa-
mously boasted that he could “walk down
[New York City’s] Fifth Avenue, shoot
someone,” and walk away with impunity
(thereby demonstrating both an arrogant
disregard of our laws and a callow lack of
concern for his fellow human beings).
As reported in The New York Times last
week, Trump boasted again after being ac-
corded a “standing ovation” by timorous
and self-serving Congressional Republi-
cans, many of whom had expressed dis-
satisfaction with the resident privately but
cravenly kowtowed to him when he ap-
peared before them in what he later char-
acterized as a “love fest”.
It’s easy to imagine the leader of the free
world pulling off another stunt in full view
of the public that he could later boast about:
If Donald J. Trump
bent over
and pulled down his pants
baring his rump
right smack on the Lincoln Mall,
it’d shock hardly anyone at all.
But of course diehard Congressional
Trumpists
would trip all over themselves
vying for a chance
to be first in line to kiss it.
You wouldn’t want to miss it!
Adam Horvath
Eugene
CONTRA SCABS
Standing in support with AFSCME
workers at the picket line, there was some
discussion about why “scabs” turn their
backs on their fellow workers who make
a sacrifice for themselves and the larger
group. Some people who enjoy benefits
earned by unions throughout labor’s histo-
ry turn away from their fellows, indicating
to management and anyone else that they
are “good little slaves.”
The word “slave” may be too strong,
as slaves got nothing but bare sustenance
for harder work than even today; howev-
er when comparing the ratio between the
raises middle management acquired (19
percent) to those of lower paid employees
(2 percent), it is no exaggeration to say that
this disparity is a lot less than fair. This is
made truer when considering the inequal-
ity present to begin with.
Some “strikebreakers” say they cross the
picket lines because “they need the money”
but add, not noticing the contradiction, that
their pay and benefits, even vacation time,
are “quite good.” If their pay is so good,
why can’t they spare a bit of it in the interest
of fairness in a system where hard work is
supposed to be valued and rewarded what-
ever your station in life is?
The ideal of communism (or presently,
socialism) is that everybody earns compa-
rable amounts — “from each according
to their ability, to each according to their
need” (Karl Marx). The aspirations and de-
sires of all fair and good Americans are not
far from this. Everyone should be able to
earn a decent living in the U.S.
David Ivan Piccioni
Eugene
A MODEST PROPOSAL
Here is what I figure is the increase in
homeless shelters this winter from last win-
ter, including decisions made by the Eugene
City Council on Oct. 23: Dusk to Dawn
tents, St. Vincent de Paul, from November
to March: 20 more; Nightingale rest stop: 6;
Emerald Village: 22. Total new: 48.
Compared to the need, we are not get-
ting anywhere. The homeless advocate
shelter creation strategy has failed.
Fortunately there is hope. At a recent
City Council public forum, a woman who
lives by Monroe Park talked about the
“thugs” who inhabit the park, using drugs,